Remote Sensing of Ice Cloud Properties Using Combined Airborne Lidar-Radar Measurements

International audienceIce clouds play an essential role in the climate system since they have a large direct effect on the Earth’s radiation budget. Their reaction to changes in water vapor concentrations and their interaction with aerosols still constitutes one of the largest uncertainties in climate change predictions. These uncertainties arise from uncertainties associated with the optical and microphysical properties of ice clouds as well as from insufficient knowledge about their spatial and temporal distribution.Substantial improvement of our understanding of the interconnection of aerosols, clouds and radiation is expected from the combination of multiple instruments exploiting sensitivities at different wavelengths. To this end, the upcoming ESA/JAXA satellite mission EarthCARE will combine a new generation spaceborne lidar system, a cloud radar, and a multi-spectral imager on one single platform. In our work, we investigate the potential to combine lidar and radar measurements to retrieve ice cloud microphysics. For the first time, this study combines the high spectral resolution (HSRL) and differential absorption (DIAL) lidar system WALES and the 35 GHz cloud radar onboard the German High Altitude and LOng range research aircraft to retrieve ice cloud properties. During flight experiments over Europe and over the extra-tropical North-Atlantic, collocated measurements with the spaceborne CALIPSO/CALIOP lidar and CloudSat radar are used to investigate the influence of different wavelengths and spatial resolutions on retrieved ice cloud properties.In our presentation, we will give first results of the synergistic approach using the differential sensitivity of the WALES lidar and the cloud radar to retrieve ice particle size and their concentration. Here, the central focus will be on the coordinated airborne and satellite measurements and on the comparison of retrieved ice cloud microphysics in preparation for the EarthCARE mission